1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle image display apparatus and more particularly to a vehicle image display apparatus arranged to display an image which abstractly or symbolically represents the vehicle condition. Further, the present invention relates to a vehicle having a vehicle image display apparatus of the type mentioned above.
2. Description of Related Art
To maintain communication between a vehicle and a driver, a conventional apparatus enables the driver to recognize information concerning the vehicle condition, road conditions and the like through a sound or an image of a pseudo-living matter such as a character or the like.
Examples of the apparatus mentioned above include a vehicle communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2001-219796. According to this vehicle communication apparatus, the intention and feeling of a pseudo-living matter are expressed by controlling the operations of the functional component elements mounted on the vehicle according to the traveling condition, the user's operating condition and the like.
Further, the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 11-259271 (1999) discloses an agent apparatus arranged to maintain communication between a vehicle and the driver by controlling an agent image and sound according to the vehicle condition, the user's favorite conditions and the like.
However, the vehicle communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2001-219796, is arranged such that the condition for expressing the intention or feeling of the pseudo-living matter and the functional component element operational mode, are set to correspond to each other on a 1:1 basis. Accordingly, such a representation is disadvantageously monotonous for the vehicle feeling expression. Further, the agent apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 11-259271 is disadvantageously difficult to be realized because of complications in the control system such as tables, control programs and the like for controlling the agent image and sound.